Pages

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Tasty Tucson Tour: The TAMMIES

Last night I to theTucson Area Music Awards, also know as the TAMMIES. In it's 14th year, the TAMMIES are a combination award show and concert of local bands. It's an annual event sponsored by my paper's sister publication, the Tucson Weekly, a highly respected alternative voice in the community. Readers vote for most of the awards, except for the critics' choice and the hall of fame.

But let's not forget the food! The TAMMIES fall right in the middle of the Tucson Birthdaycelebration, a month-long salute to Tucson's 232nd anniversary. Hence, a free buffet of the most popular local eateries offered up a taste of Tucson before the gig. It was a great way to try out a bunch of Tucson favorites from places like El Charro Café, Cushing Street Bar and Grill, Enoteca, Casablanca Mansion, Sports On Congress and Lindys o4th.

In this photo, you see a selection of pizza from Enoteca, hummus and falafel, a Mexican dish from El Charro and a chocolate mousse in that little cup from Cushing Street Bar. I love free food! It was so nice of the restaurants to participate in this event.

The hummuswith falafaland pita was great and I'd eat it again. It wasn't quite as authentic as what I ate when I studied in Egypt, but it was still smooth and salty with a hint of olive oil. The pizza was a bit chewy and didn't pack a lot of flavor for as great as it smelled and looked, but it was still filling and nice to look at.The dish from El Charro, the place credited with inventing the chimichanga, was spicy and smokey and obviously made from scratch. I'll have to actually go to this place, their dish was so tasty. The mousse was very rich, yet still airy, even though the white chocolate portion didn't hold its shape. The flavor was smooth and delicious, but so rich that the little 1.5-ounce cup they offered was more than sufficient. There were also brownies, coffee drinks, buffalo wings and philly cheesesteak sandwiches, but I didn't get pictures of that and was too full to keep eating!

The musicians were a talented and eclectic bunch. The shot you see here is of Ryanhood, an amazing folk rock acoustic duo. I was seriously impressed by these guys because of their stage presence, audience involvement and skill in both instrumentation and lyrics. You'll have to go visit their MySpace page. As one of my coworker said about these guys, "With all respect to them and Tucson, what the hell are they still doing here? Shouldn't they be rich and famous by now?"